The Scorching Sun - 52
There wasn't much else to do that afternoon, and with so many people crowding the ward, there was barely room to move.
Once Ye Yuncheng was fully conscious again, he felt deeply embarrassed. He'd caused so many people to run around on his behalf, turning the whole thing into such a production. He pushed himself halfway upright and urged everyone to go home and rest, saying it was perfectly safe staying at the hospital by himself.
Liu Qiaohong smiled. "Teacher Gao, you should go back to school and teach. You two kids should go back too. I took the afternoon off, I can stay here and keep an eye on him for the rest of the day."
Fang Zhuo shook her head.
Once Ye Yuncheng recovered a little more, someone would need to help him get out of bed and walk around. Postoperative care was fairly demanding, and Liu Qiaohong was already terribly busy. Working as a poverty-relief cadre in the townships was an exhausting job, Fang Zhuo didn't want to add another burden to him.
Ye Yuncheng also told him to take Xiao Mu home first, perhaps even stay in Li Village for a while. Being in a tense place like a hospital might agitate him, Ye Yuncheng's stall probably wouldn't be up and running again anytime soon anyway.
Xiao Mu was actually doing quite well today. Liu Qiaohong had lent him his phone to play games, and he'd already been playing a game of matching stars for an hour without showing any sign of tiredness. Sitting quietly on a little blue stool outside, he was the very picture of obedience.
The homeroom teacher felt that every aspect of this family situation was cause for concern. In a low voice, she asked, "Does that child have autism? Is he part of your family?"
"No, it's a developmental intellectual delay. He's actually Ye-ge's neighbor." Liu Qiaohong was facing the doorway, though Xiao Mu wasn't visible from where he stood.
"Actually, when Xiao Mu was born, if he'd received treatment in time, there was a very good chance he could've developed normally. But nobody knew any better back then. His family situation was complicated too, they weren't willing to spend money on him. Not only did he missed the best window for treatment, he never received the appropriate intervention."
"Oh?" The homeroom teacher sighed regretfully. "That's such a shame."
Such situations weren't uncommon in the countryside. Liu Qiaohong had seen plenty of cases like it.
"Yeah. But Xiao Mu is relatively lucky. His intellectual disability is only mild, and he's a boy. He never went to school when he was little, there was a period when things were pretty bad for him. It left him with some psychological scars around interacting with other people. After the government departments took over his care, they sent him to a specialized school for educational intervention. Now he can basically take care of himself, and he doesn't have any violent tendencies."
The homeroom teacher nodded thoughtfully.
"Though his language skills are quite poor and he doesn't like participating in social interaction, he can actually understand what you're saying, he can also do simple work." Liu Qiaohong had probably guessed what she was worried about and explained, "He wasn't happy at his previous job. People bullied him there. Ye-ge is paying him a salary now and bringing him into his business, we have our people keeping an eye on things too. Xiao Mu goes back to stay with his uncle's family during school holidays, though, so he won't interfere too much with Fang Zhuo's life."
Caught out by his bluntness, the homeroom teacher smiled awkwardly. "I didn't mean anything by it. I just think Fang Zhuo's circumstances are rather unusual right now. She really needs to stay focused on school and prepare for the gaokao."
In her eyes, both Ye Yuncheng and Xiao Mu were the sort of people who needed someone to take care of them.
"It's all right. I understand completely." Liu Qiaohong spoke sincerely. "You're a really good teacher."
The homeroom teacher was caught off guard by the compliment and quickly returned it. "You're a good cadre too."
Liu Qiaohong scratched his head sheepishly. "We're all working hard. I'm really not doing anything special."
Ye Yuncheng suddenly cut in. "Get married already."
Liu Qiaohong shot him a sideways look. "What right do you have to say that to me?"
"You haven't gotten married yet?" The homeroom teacher burst out laughing. "Do you want me to introduce you to someone? I'm telling you, we teachers may not have much else, but we know a lot of people. I guarantee I'll find you someone reliable."
"No, no, don't." Liu Qiaohong hurriedly shook his head. "I'm the unreliable one. I'm too busy right now, running all over the place every day. I can't take care of a household. I shouldn't hold some good girl back."
"What are you saying? Surely you won't be doing poverty relief forever?"
Liu Qiaohong really had been stationed in poverty-relief work for several years. Under normal circumstances, his experience would have qualified him for a transfer long ago, but he'd been the one to request that he stay.
The subject clearly excited him. His face lit up as he spoke, his eyebrows dancing. "Once the country achieves its goal of eliminating extreme poverty nationwide, I'll probably be able to move up. If I work hard, maybe someday I'll even get transferred to A City."
While the adults chatted and laughed, Fang Zhuo and Yan Lie leaned against the window, working through the math problems being sent to their phones in their heads.
The pace of schoolwork was a strange thing.
When you were sitting in class listening to the teacher, it always felt as though everything being taught was something you'd already reviewed and none of it was particularly important. But the moment you took a day off, you discovered you'd somehow missed a billion things in the space of a few hours.
"Why are they going so fast today? Have they already reviewed this section?" Yan Lie scrolled down the image and muttered, "Is the math teacher doing this on purpose?"
"That's why you need to hurry back!" Fang Zhuo said. "If you go back, you can listen in class and then help me catch up."
"Got it. I'll go back for evening study!"
Fang Zhuo adopted a solemn, almost elder-sisterly tone. "You need to study hard. Don't start slipping at such a critical moment. Otherwise, I'll feel terribly guilty."
Yan Lie gritted his teeth. "I am studying hard!"
The two of them leaned their heads together and whispered. The homeroom teacher shot several exasperated looks in their direction. They were talking about studying, so she couldn't very well say anything. The pent-up frustration was making her uncomfortable, and in the end she decided it was better to take Yan Lie, the source of all her headaches, back to school first.
She walked over and grabbed Yan Lie by the collar, trying to drag him away. The two of them were locked in a tug-of-war when there was a soft knock at the ward door.
Fang Yiming stood half in the backlight, turned slightly sideways. "Fang Zhuo."
Fang Zhuo straightened her back and slowly turned around. She first looked at Ye Yuncheng and met his warm, gentle gaze for several seconds before turning to Fang Yiming.
She suddenly realized that she'd achieved a calmness she'd spent so long trying and failing to find before. She asked, "Is there something else?"
Fang Yiming looked somewhat awkward, his gaze shifting uneasily. He couldn't bring himself to speak in front of Ye Yuncheng. Seeing this, Fang Zhuo took the initiative to step outside and motioned for him to follow her somewhere quieter.
The homeroom teacher, worried, followed them out.
Fang Yiming handed her a sheet of paper.
He'd been gripping it in his palm for so long that the corners were covered in creases.
"It's the bank transaction records..." he explained quietly. "Whether you believe me or not, I really didn't take your uncle's money. Your grandmother must have taken the card. Every time money was deposited into it, she'd withdraw it the next day. I haven't used that card in a long time."
Fang Zhuo didn't take the paper or even look closely at it. She merely answered with a quiet, "Oh."
Her life had always been a bitter fruit wrapped in thorns. There was no way of knowing anymore whether this money had ever actually been spent, and she no longer had the energy to investigate.
Fang Yiming was at a loss for words. He reached into his bag and took out another twenty thousand yuan.
"Take this for now. I... I owed you this."
"I don't need it." Fang Zhuo's face was expressionless. "I'm never taking your money again. Grandma wouldn't take it, and neither will I."
The homeroom teacher came over. "What's going on?"
Fang Zhuo gave a vague explanation. "My uncle used to transfer his subsidies to me. For several years. It added up to more than twenty thousand yuan."
"I didn't know about that," Fang Yiming said.
The homeroom teacher lowered her gaze, thinking for a moment. Then realization dawned on her. "I think I might know where that money is."
She turned to Fang Zhuo, her expression suddenly serious. "That money should still be there, Fang Zhuo. Your grandmother saved it for you."
Fang Zhuo raised her brows in confusion.
"Before you transferred here, your grandmother came with the academic affairs director from your old school to help you complete the transfer procedures. Normally, we don't accept transfer students according to the usual process, but your grandmother kept pleading with the principal."
At the time, the old woman had grabbed the principal's hand and dropped to her knees. Before she'd even managed to say a word, tears were already streaming down her face.
She'd been seriously ill by then, terribly thin and frail, barely able to walk steadily. When she knelt on the floor, her back hunched over, she seemed to collapse into a tiny, shrunken figure, carrying the accumulated bitterness of an entire life.
And yet it was precisely those years of hardship etched so deeply into her face that allowed everyone to recognize the strength beneath her halting words.
"That child has had such a hard life, but she's willing to endure any hardship. Isn't equal access to education supposed to give people like her a chance to change their lives? She's never had that chance since she was little. Please, give her one."
The old woman had kept telling them how poor Fang Zhuo's circumstances were. She couldn't give the child any help, nor had she given her the care she deserved.
Whenever she saw Fang Zhuo lingering by someone else's window, she wished this child hadn't been born into a family like theirs.
But what could she do? When fate dealt you a bad hand, there was no point blaming heaven or anyone else.
Now she was close to death. All she wanted was for this child to be shown a little mercy by life.
Fang Zhuo's grades might not have matched those of children from the big cities, but there was no doubt that her effort and natural ability were every bit as great as theirs.
Fang Zhuo listened in stunned silence.
Her grandmother had always been a proud woman. So proud that no matter how hard life became, she could go her entire life without asking the son she despised for a single penny.
She had been the first person to teach Fang Zhuo what dignity meant. You could live in poverty, she taught her, but you must never let your back bend. Only by keeping your spine straight could you look upward.
"The old lady brought a red cloth bundle with her that day. There were twenty thousand yuan inside."
Twenty thousand yuan wasn't much to them. But when the old woman tremblingly pulled the red bundle from inside her clothes, carefully unfolded it, and bowed her head to press her forehead against it, they truly felt the weight of that money.
The old woman had told them it was the only money any member of Fang Zhuo's family had ever saved for her. No matter how poor or difficult life became, she had never touched it. She'd saved it solely so Fang Zhuo could go to university.
That was Fang Zhuo's emergency lifeline.
"That's why we agreed to give you a chance to take the entrance exam," the homeroom teacher said. "As long as you passed, we'd admit you."
The homeroom teacher still remembered that day vividly. Fang Zhuo had been wearing a pair of faded cloth shoes, standing in front of the school's bulletin board with her head tilted upward as she studied the activity photographs and competition certificates pinned behind the glass.
Her face had been calm, her eyes intent. She'd read every single one carefully, lingering over each word.
Her arms had hung rigidly at her sides, both hands clenched tightly into fists. She must have been yearning for it, yet she had forced herself to hold that desire in check. With stubbornness and restraint, she was fighting back against the indignity of her circumstances.
She was a good child.
That was when the homeroom teacher had been struck by the realization that society was not an equal place. It wasn't fair. Some people were simply missing that one path upward, that one chance to change their lives. And if someone gave them one, even if it was no more than a spider's thread, they would cling to it and climb.
"We didn't take that money. I told her to put it away for you instead, so it could at least earn some interest in the bank." The homeroom teacher looked at Fang Zhuo. "Go to the bank and check whether you've ever opened an account. That money should be under your own name."
Fang Zhuo could barely hear her anymore. She raised a hand to cover her face, her shoulders trembling ever so slightly.
"Your grandmother fought to win this opportunity for you." The homeroom teacher gripped Fang Zhuo's shoulders and spoke with solemn conviction. "So you have to get into a good university. Fang Zhuo, you have to get into A University!”
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